Summary

Some 6000 different languages are spoken in the world today, and tracing the prehistory of languages and of language change by means of genetic markers has long been a goal (1). However, this has proven to be a more challenging task than simply tracing colonizations. Nevertheless, a number of genetic studies over the past few years have started to address language and language change before recorded history. A correlation is emerging that suggests language change in an already-populated region may require a minimum proportion of immigrant males, as reflected in Y-chromosome DNA types. By contrast, the female lineages, as indicated by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) types, do not reflect the survivor language but represent more ancient settlement.